214 Yorkshire Naturalists at South Cave. 



On the arrival of the chalk ' slurry ' at the Humbe/ works it will be 

 mixed with liquid clay in the right proportions, and other necessary in- 

 gredients, the result filtered out, dried, and fired, and ' I'ortland cement *■ 

 is the result. 



The works, besides their industrial interest, have a scientific im- 

 portance, since they have revealed the presence iii the district of strata 

 never previously recorded. 



On the Sunday, the members who were staying the week-end, spent 

 the morning, by special permission, in the grounds and gardens of Cave 

 Castle, a pleasant old house, which commands a magnificent view across 

 the Humber and up the Vale of Trent. The house is at present unoccupied, 

 and consequently some parts of the grounds have been suffered to develop 

 a little more freedom, and to the botanist a little more charm than the 

 gardener will commonly permit. Thus one was able to see with something 

 of the appearance of Nature's handiwork choice foreign species growing 

 luxuriantly and without formality — masses of a sky-blue anemone — 

 the Appenine species or something akin ; Scillas and Chionodo.xas of 

 the richest colours, Primulas in great variety, in jungles of glowing 

 Forsythia. There was still much beauty in the scores of square yards of 

 the little winter aconite — a native, no doubt, in this locality, and one 

 of which the gardeners have had the good taste to make much. 



In the afternoon the party walked across the park, and an extensive 

 expanse of level countiy, to one of the attractive recesses in the Wolds. 

 Drewtondale, that selected for the visit, is one of many deeply-cut 

 clefts which open suddenly in the side of the rounded chalk hills. It is 

 filled with woodland, but it is perhaps best known in the district from the 

 occurrence at its head of a huge mass of natural concrete of chalk and 

 flint, standing like a castle on high, and commanding a very impressive 

 view. This is known as St. Austin's Stone. 



The botany of the dale was interesting, and had special distinction 

 in providing the deadly nightshade, the monkshood — in conditions 

 which allows one to think it native and not introduced from a garden — 

 and delightful patches of sweet white violets. 



On Easter Monday a large number of naturalists from Hull and a few 

 from the West Riding assembled at Brough railway station, and walked 

 to South Cave station, where a visit was made to a remarkable quarry 

 opened near the goods sidings of the station. Forty years ago when the 

 railway cutting was made the section displayed was sufficiently curious 

 to provoke Mr. F. F. Walton, -of Hull, who was the leader of the party 

 for the day, to make a sketch in his note-book. Two years ago a quarry 

 was opened to work what at that time appeared to be a solid mass of 

 hard limestone — the Millepore Limestone. The work had not gone 

 very far when it was found that a mere screen of limestone concealed 

 very fine white sand of high value for glass-making, and as this was 

 eagerly excavated, the section developed a most puzzling complexity, 

 for great masses many yards in length of the limestone were found 

 overlying glacial deposits much less ancient than the limestones them- 

 selves, and involved in the confusion was an old land surface with rootlets 

 and rolled masses of estuarine material of Oolitic age. The spot has 

 attracted many geologists during the last year or so, and it is now con- 

 cluded with fair certainty that the phenomena can only be explained 

 as due to disturbance by a glacier, which has torn off and thrust forward 

 a mass of limestone overlying the less ancient deposits. A special in- 

 terest lies in the fact that if this is glacial work, as doubtless it is, it must 

 belong to a stage of the Ice Age of which little is known, since most of the 

 evidence was swept away by later phases of glaciation. Evidently 

 the thrust was in the direction of the Humber, and if ice could find a 

 way to the sea through the Humber, it must have been qiiite early in 

 glacial history, for the Humber was very soon closed by the ice-sheet, 

 the moraine of which was examined on the Saturda}' excursion. 



